1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to a location service providing system and method, and in particular, to a location service providing system and method for repeatedly providing a location service.
2. Description of the Related Art
Recently, according to an increase in demands for location-related services, various location services using a position of a mobile communication terminal are being provided and/or developed.
In particular, a triggered location service for repeatedly providing a location service in response to a single request has been being developed. The triggered location service includes a service for periodically or non-periodically providing a location service corresponding to a specific time and condition.
In the triggered location service, a home-SUPL (Secure User Plane for Location) location platform (H-SLP) and a target SUPL enabled terminal (SET) determine a positioning method to be used to calculate a position of the target SET when they are initially connected. That is, when the H-SLP and the target SET are initially connected to each other, the H-SLP and the target SET exchange their positioning capabilities, and the H-SLP or the target SET selects a common positioning capability and determines the selected positioning capability as the positioning method. The H-SLP and the target SET store the determined positioning method in their memories and reuse the stored positioning method in an assistant data calculation process required for the triggered position service.
The H-SLP receives requests of the triggered position service from a plurality of target SETs. Thus, the H-SLP can store positioning methods of the plurality of target SETs in its memory, and when the H-SLP calculates a position of each of the plurality of target SETs, the H-SLP can search for a positioning method of a target SET from among the stored positioning methods of the plurality of target SETs. However, it is inefficient for the H-SLP to store these positioning methods and reuse one of them in a location calculation process.
In addition, in the triggered location service, the H-SLP determines and stores a positioning method when it is initially connected to a target SET, continuously uses the stored positioning method, and deletes the stored positioning method when the triggered location service ends. However, since positioning methods use variable data, an error may occur in a process of storing or deleting each of the positioning methods in (or from) the memory of the H-SLP.
As a result, since the H-SLP repeatedly (periodically or non-periodically) performs the location calculation process for the triggered location service with a plurality of target SETs, a process of storing and searching a variable positioning method of each of the plurality of target SETs may burden the H-SLP with repetitive processes. Moreover, since the process of storing and searching a variable positioning method of each of the plurality of target SETs is frequently performed, an error occurrence probability is high.